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(No'Modl-J y L. WOODWARD.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

STOCKING 0R HALF :HOSBANDMETHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME.

,No. 244,352. Patented July 12,1881.

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(No ModeL) v -2 Sheets-Sheet 2 L. WOODWARD. A STOGKING 0R HALF HOSE ANDMETHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME.

No. 244,352. A Patented July 12,1881.

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' PATENT STOCKING R HALF-HOSE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 244,352, dated July 12,1881.

Application filed January 7, 1881. (No model.) Patented in England June10, 1880. I

7 subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Lee Works,Arkwright Street, Nottingham,

England, have invented certain new and use- 1 ful Improvements inStockings or Half-Hose and Methods of Manufacturing the same, (for whichI have received Letters Patent in England, No. 2,350, dated 10th June,1880,) of which the following is a specification.-

The object of this invention is to enable the feet of stockings andhalf-hoseor socks to be man ufacturedatless cost than heretofore. Theusual way of manufacturingstockings andhalfhose on tlat or straightknitting machines is, first, to make the leg-.piece with two pieces toform the heel projectingfrom its end, and sometimes between these twoheel-pieces a central piece to form the instep, as is represented byFigure 1 of the annexed drawings. Afterward the partially-formedstocking or half-hose is transferred to another machine for the lowerpart of the foot to be worked upon it. The ends of the two heel-pieccs aa are brought together and the inner sides of the heel-pieces c b a I)laid onto a row of needles, and the bottom of the foot is then workedupon these needles. Afterward the end of the leg-piece, or of thecentral or instep piece, 0 0, previously mentionedfis placed onto a rowof needles, and a continuation of this piece is worked to form the upperpart of the foot. The side edges of the upper and lower parts of thefoot have subsequently to be seamed together by hand, or on a piecing orseaming machine, and the foot is then completed. Thus, when forming thefoot in this manner, it is necessary to have two ,transfers of loopsfrom one set of needles to others, and there are two seams to be piecedor sewed together.

In some cases, (in France more especially,) in place of forming the footin the above manner, the leg-piece and the heel-pieces have first beenformed. The central loops at the end of the leg-piece and the side edgesof the heel-pieces (along the Whole line from a to b b and a in Fig. 2)have then been placed onto one straight row of needles, and the whole,both top and bottom of the foot, has been worked upon them in one piece,and in order to make the foot to the shape required peculiar doublenarrowin gs d, where the first narrowing occurs.

have been made at the Sides near the toe end. Fig. 3 represents aportion of a foot-piece with this old double narrowing as it is made atthe toe end. These peculiar double narrowings are expensive to make.They require double manipulation, and cannot be made by automaticnarrowing machinery, except by a very slow and expensiveprocess,requirin g complicated mechananism. In producing a doublenarrowing, instead of only one set of loops being lifted from theneedles, asin making the single narrowing, hereinafterdescribed,theloopsnear the selvage are removed from the needles in two separate sets, andthen the outer set is moved to bring it to overlap the inner set, whichis also moved before theretransfer of the loops from the narrowing-points to the needles is effectechto bring it to overlap the workwhich throughout has remained upon the needles.

The object of my invention is to enable properly-shaped foot-pieces ofstockings and halfhose to be made-in one piece upon ordinaryknitting-machines provided with ordinaryautomatic narrowing apparatus.(See, for instance, the English patents of Hind et 601., No. 325 of1854, and Woodward, No. 3,674 of 1869, for suitable narrowing apparatus;and for examples of machines of the class with which said apparatus maybe employed, see the Englishpatents of Lamb and Lowe and of Woodward,Nos. 3,068 and 3,480, both in the year 1871.) v

I- form the stocking or half-hose in the manner indicated by Fig. 4. Imake single narrowings at the instep and near the toe of the foot-piece,at a distance in from the selvage nearly but not quite equal to thelength of the side of the heel-pieces, or about one-fourth of theneedles employed to make the foot. The work, when in the state indicatedin Fig. 2, is transferred to the needles of the machine by which thefoot is to be produced. The foot is commenced as in the French processabove referred to, and continued as far, as the point One broad set ofpoints, containing about one-fourth of the number of needles employed tomake the foot, then takes the loops of this band of fabric from theneedles at one edge of the piece, and, aftershifting-them inward thedistance of two needles, lands them onto other needles. Similarly, onthe other side of the fabric, another set of points shifts the loops onthe other edge of the piece. The next narrowing occurs at (1?, and herethe operation is identically that performed at (1, except that thenumber of loops shifted is less by one. In the example given by thedrawings three other narrowings, d (1, and (1 complete the shaping ofthe instep, and at each successive narrowing the number of loops shiftedis one less than in the preceding. These narrowin gs may be placednearer to the selvage of the work, if desired. Similarly, when makingthe narrowings for shaping the toe, the number of loops shifted at thesuccessive narrowin gs is gradually decreased as the toe end isapproached. In this way the narrowings are kept all in one line directedto the toe, and this line is about one-quarter of the circumference ofthe foot from the selvage. The narrowings at the toe end occur at thepoints marked 0 c e, &c., in the figure. These narrowin gs are much morenumerous and closely set than they are in the instep; but in otherrespects the shaping at the tee is effected in the same way as that atthe instep. By thus using a broad set of points at each edge of thefabric, simply to take a large number of loops and shift them all inwardtoward the central line of the footpiece, the narrowin gs will be madeat the requisite distance from the selvage. These sets of points can beworked by the ordinary narrowing mechanism, just in the same manner thatnarrowin gs are commonly made automatically in all flat or straightknitting machines.

By making the feet of stockings in the above manner they can be madeupon any ordinary flat or straight knitting machines fitted withnarrowing mechanism, and there will be only one transfer of the workfrom one machine to another, and one seam to be pieced or sewed toconnect together the selvages of the foot-piece. This seam runs alongthecenter of the foot on the under side, as represented at Fig. 5, which isan under-side view of the foot of the completed stocking or half-hose.It will be observed that in this view the points d d &c., o c, 850.,fall on the edge of the figure. Lines are drawn upon Figs. 4 and 5 toindicate the direction in which the wales or lines ofloops in the fabricrun. The lines marked on the one figure correspond to the lines on theother figure. In consequence of but one transfer of the work beingrequired, and but one seam, my improved stockings and half-hose or sockshaving the foot-pieces as described above, which are convenientlyproduced by automatic machinery, can be made at less cost than any otherof equal quality.

Along each ofthe sides of the foot-piece, and for some distance inwardtoward the center of the piece, the work may be thickened by the layingin of a splicing or thickening thread, leaving the central part of thepiece, which forms the top part of the foot or instep, the samethickness as the leg part, until the part is reached where thenarrowings commence for shaping the toe. The top part of this portion ofthe foot can then also be spliced or thickened, so making a thin instepand thickened toe and foot bottoms.

Having thus described the nature of my said invention and the manner ofperforming the same, I would have it understood that I claim- 1. As animprovement in the art of manufacturing stockings, 850., thebefore-described method of working the foot all in one piece, or so thatthere is required but a single seam, and that in the middle of the footon the under side, said method consisting in placing the work, whenready to be transferred, or in the state indicated by Fig. 2, all atonce upon the needles of the machine by which the foot is to beproduced, with the loops of the two parts of the heel and the middle orinstep portion in a straight line upon them, shaping the instep bymaking single narrowings, as indicated at (1 (1 850., of Figs. 4 and 5,by taking loops from the needles at the edges of the piece, shiftingthem inward the distance of two needles and landing them onto otherneedles to form the first of the single narrowings at opposite sides,forming the next of the narrowings, 0?, in like manner, except that thenumber ofloops shifted is less by one than at first, and so on tocomplete the instep by successively producing single narrowin gs andlessening by one the number of loops in turn shifted, and finallyshaping the toe by numerous closely-set narrowings, similar to thoseformed at the instep, and in line therewith, substantially ashereinbefore set forth.

2. The hereinbefore-described stocking, 850.,

having the single narrowings at the sides of the instep and toe, thoseat either side of the instep being in line with those at the toe on thecorresponding side, and provided with but a single seam which passesalong the foot on the under side, substantially as herciubefore setforth.

3. A stocking or sock provided with a number of single narrowiugs, e, ator near the toe, the said narrowings being in two series, and those ofeither series as they successively approach the toe correspondinglyapproaching the selvage to locate all of the narrowings aboutone-quarter of the circumference of the foot from the selvage,substantially as herein- IIO before set forth, whereby the single seamof the foot'piec'e may be formed at the under side.

' LUKE WOODWARD.

Witnesses:

JOHN THOMPSON BREWSTER,

N otm'y Public, Nottingham. FREDERICK BREWSTER,

Of Nottingham.

